Portfolios - Showcase Your Skills

One of the greatest challenges that employers face when hiring
new employees is getting a sense of candidates’ skill levels.
The resume gives some introductory information, but a wise employer
wants to find out if the skills and accomplishments listed on the
resume are accurate self-appraisals of candidates’ skills. So
a portfolio becomes a tool for the savvy job-seeker to stand out
from the competition and leave few doubts as to his/her
capabilities. This article will talk about different formats for
portfolios, content and how to use portfolios in interviews.

Portfolio Formats

Portfolios can exist in various forms depending on your career
field and technical skills. If you’re new to creating a
portfolio I would suggest a traditional format of paper documents
collected in a zippered binder. Other formats include CDs, efolios,
and web pages. You may also choose to do a combination of these
formats as it can be nice to send a web link to a prospective
employer before the interview and then have some actual samples for
“show and tell” at the interview. Bringing actual
samples also takes pressure off the interviewer in case s/he
wasn’t able to view the e-version before the interview.

Portfolio Content

What kinds of things can you include in a portfolio? That will
depend mainly on your career field and then on what skills you want
to showcase. A little self-assessment is important to decide what
should be highlighted. A graphic artist could have pieces
demonstrating skills in design software from initial conception to
finished products. A career counselor could show assessment tools,
workshop outlines and intake forms. A carpenter could have pictures
of completed projects, measured drawings and customer
recommendations. Here are some suggestions for organizing materials
in paper or electronic form:

Education and training- diplomas, CEU certificates,
transcripts

Work samples- projects, publications, photographs of work- an
extra touch is adding captions that explain the item

The important thing to keep in mind that making a portfolio is
not like making a scrapbook. The pages (for paper forms) should be
easy-to-read with clear captions and relevant material. Electronic
pages should also be streamlined- bells and whistles can be
distracting to the viewer. Think about the image that you want to
project and choose material accordingly. Like items on the resume,
items in the portfolio should be chosen for the strength of the
accomplishment or skills displayed. Choose items relevant to your
career goal that you can tell stories about in the interview. This
leads us to how to use the portfolio in an interview.

Using Portfolios in Interviews

Now that you’ve put together this marketing tool,
it’s time to figure out how to use it in the interview
process. Here are a number of ways to share your work with
employers:

On your resume add a line at the bottom “portfolio
available for review” or “portfolio available
at..."

If you have an email address for the employer, send the link as
a quick contact message

Call the company and ask if it would be okay to send some work
samples in addition to your resume- make sure these are copies and
not the original items in your portfolio

Bring your paper portfolio to the interview and as questions
come up that are good times to show items in your portfolio, use
the page to add to your story. You can say something like “I
have an example of a successful budget kitchen project in my
portfolio. Let me show you the end result.”

At the end of the interview, offer to leave copies of selected
pages with the employer to review on his/her own time

At the end of the interview offer to show the portfolio and
explain some of the materials inside (this has a risk of running
out of time before you’ve had a chance to show your work)

Portfolios are similar to thank-you letters in that very
few people use them to their advantage in the job search. The
process of putting together a portfolio can be a real confidence
booster as you review past accomplishments and achievements. If you
feel that you don’t have anything to out in a portfolio right
now, then set a goal for yourself to collect 10 items that you
could use in an interview to sell your skills. You may have to
create some projects as part of this process or do some networking
to get work samples by taking on small projects for people but then
you’ll be on your way to acquiring a powerful interview
tool.

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